CXVII

It is proper for him to offer counsel to kings who
dreads not to lose his head, nor looks for a reward:—­Whether
thou strewest heaps of gold at his feet, or brandishest
an Indian sword over the Unitarian’s head, to
hope or fear he is alike indifferent; and in this the
divine unity alone he is resolved and firm.

CXVIII

It belongs to the king to displace extortioners, to
the superintendent of the police to guard against
murderers, and to the cazi to decide in quarrels and
disputes. No two complainants ever referred to
the cazi content to abide by justice:—­When
thou knowest that in right the claim is just, better
pay with a grace than by distress and force. If
a man is refractory in discharging his revenue, the
collector must necessarily coerce him to pay it.

CXIX

Every man’s teeth are blunted by acids excepting
the cazi’s, and they require sweets:—­That
cazi, or judge, that can accept of five cucumbers
as a bribe, will confirm thee in a right to ten fields
of melons.

* * * *
*

CXXI

They asked a wise man, saying: “Of the
many celebrated trees which the Most High God has
created lofty and umbrageous, they call none azad,
or free, excepting the cypress, which bears no fruit;
what mystery is there in this?” He replied:
“Each has its appropriate produce and appointed
season, during the continuance of which it is fresh
and blooming, and during their absence dry and withered;
to neither of which states is the cypress exposed,
being always flourishing; and of this nature are the
azads, or religious independents. Fix not thy
heart on what is transitory; for the Dijlah, or Tigris,
will continue to flow through Bagdad after the race
of Khalifs is extinct. If thy hand has plenty,
be liberal as the date-tree; but if it affords nothing
to give away, be an azad, or free man, like the cypress.”

CXXII

Two orders of mankind died, and carried with them
regret: such as had and did not spend, and such
as knew and did not practise:—­None can see
that wretched mortal a miser who will not endeavor
to point out his faults; but were the generous man
to have a hundred defects, his liberality would cover
all his blemishes.

THE CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK

The book of the “Gulistan, or Flower-Garden,”
was completed through the assistance and grace of
God. Throughout the whole of this work I have
not followed the custom of writers by inserting verses
of poetry borrowed from former authors:—­“It
is more decorous to wear our own patched and old cloak
than to ask in loan another man’s garment.”